Children's clothes were used to smuggle crystal meth from Turkey into Merseyside, a court heard.

Turkish police opened a package at Istanbul airport in November 2012 and found 640g of meth amphetamine, also known as ‘ice’, packed into the shoulder pads of children’s jackets and woolly hats.

Together with the UK’s Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) they allowed the package to be delivered to a flat on Seabank Road, Wallasey.

But they had secretly replaced the meth with dishwasher powder and put the packs in plastic bags impregnated with smart water that would show up yellow under UV lights.

Christopher Stables, prosecuting, told Liverpool Crown Court the package was then delivered by an undercover police officer posing as a UPS delivery driver and it was Mohammad Khosro-Golestan who answered the door and signed for it.

Half an hour later police smashed the door down and found Khosro-Golestan, 34, and Kamran Javadi with packages already removed and yellow stains on their hands

The 640g of meth amphetamine was in its purer crystal form and was estimated to be worth between £96,000 and £128,000.

A drugs officer with 21 years experience said that to his knowledge this was the largest UK seizure of crystal meth

Heroin valued at more than £700 was also found.

Javadi, who pleaded guilty to the charges, was found to have made a phone call to Turkey just four minutes after the package was delivered, the prosecution say to confirm the safe arrival of the drugs.

Khosro-Golestan, who gave a bail address of Bowland Drive, Ford, Litherland, said Javadi had come to stay with him for a few days and he signed for the package because he thought it was his wife’s.

He denies importing heroin and meth amphetamine.

Mr Stables told jurors: “He says he was an innocent dupe. The prosecution case is that both defendants were in it together. The pair of them were caught red handed, or in this case, yellow handed.”